Director's Brief
By Byron Wolff
Thank you for taking the time to read our Spring Newsletter. Greetings to our new readers and a warm welcome back to our loyal readers.
Its nearly our favourite time of the year; Rodeo time!
If you haven’t been to the Warwick Rodeo it’s definitely something to put on your bucket list. The event is held on the 22nd – 28th of October at the Warwick show grounds and brings to town the best of the best. Filled with horseman, bronc riders, bull riders and much more Warwick Rodeo and Gold Cup Campdraft is the highlight of the year for many. Last year the event exceeded expectations with nearly 35,000 people through the gates over the event. It is not an event to be missed!
Thompson Longhorn are proud to announce we are Gold Sponsors of the Rodeo again this year and we absolutely love the opportunity to attend. All cattle are processed through Thompson Longhorn equipment which is a perfect opportunity to see our core operating centre in full action. Don’t forget to stop by the Thompson Longhorn trade stall to say hi!
We hope to see you all there!
Custom Operating Centre
By Heidi Green
Have you ever seen our core equipment, (crowds, races, ramps, and so on) and wondered if you could change those stairs out for ramped catwalk, or load out of that race? You can, and we thought we could share a few examples of recent customizations.
This is our 360° Pneumatic Nearside Crowd, as the name implies there are quite a few variations; 270°, 180° (rather than 360°), Manual (rather than pneumatic), Offside, and different combinations of those. The stairs that you see coming off the catwalk can also be moved around the crowd to better suit your yard, or indeed replaced by inclined catwalks.
This is our Parallel Non-Sheeted Curved Nearside Race, and the name gives it away again-there are plenty of variations; Vee-profile (rather than parallel), Half-Sheeted, Full Sheeted (rather than Non-Sheeted), Straight, Offside, and a variety of combinations of those. All of those come with break out gates in every section, but what if you want to load out of your race? You can, and we’ve done so at both the start and the middle of our curved race. In both cases a gate directs cattle either to the load out or through the race.
This is our Double Deck Ramp, which is always great to customize. Do you really only need to unload, then we can remove the sorting gate from the bottom. Do you have an unusual yard layout and you just can’t fit the standard straight ramp, may we suggest kinking the ramp. Does your site have multiple levels, use your ramp to best advantage spanning between your yards and road heights.
Para-Vee Headbail
By Heidi Green
CURRENTLY TWO IN STOCK
Some would say that there isn’t room for improvement in headbail design, here at Thompson Longhorn we respectfully disagree. There are a lot of variations on Headbails, but most fall into two types; vee doors and parallel doors.
Vee Headbails have both doors rotate to open and close, pivoting off the bottom of the headbail frame, so the bottom of the doors close faster than the top. That is you can close the doors enough to catch the shoulders, and still leave room for the animal’s head between the doors, reducing the risk of missed animals.
However, the pivots mean that even when the doors are fully open, the bottom of the headbail isn’t clear, and therefore cattle can feel forced to jump through.
Parallel Headbails on the other hand have both doors slide to open and close, typically using wheels and runners at the top of the doors. Which means there is nothing in the way when the doors are open. However, the top and bottom of the headbail close at the same time, so animals must be caught after they reach the headbail.
Which led us to the question, why not combine both and create a Parallel-Vee Headbail? Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple, but it does work. As the doors first start to open, they mostly rotate, and as they open, they begin to mostly slide, keeping the pivots out of the way, without losing the catching convenience of the vee headbail.
While taking the Parallel-Vee Headbail from concept to product, we decided to make a few other changes, starting with adapting the manual version to make it much easier to use, and ending with changing the name to para-vee.
CURRENTLY TWO IN STOCK
1 x Heavy Duty vet with para-vee head bail
1 x Grazier with para-vee head bail
Have you read our free ebook?
Our free eBook outlines some of the perennial challenges and questions that you may face when you are looking to invest in new equipment or yards. We understand that this can be a confusing and complicated process, our eBook shows you how we can make the process easier for you.
Get your free copy here
Come and see us at our factory
288 Inverramsay Road, 75 kilometres from Toowoomba
We welcome you to visit use to see our automated trade display and our robotic welding facility. Our factory is only a 50 minute drive from Toowoomba. Simply turn east just south of Allora at the Goomburra turnoff and 12.5km later you will be at Thompson Longhorn.
An appointment is necessary for factory tours. To book an appointment please call us on (07) 4666 6174.
Have you checked out our facebook page?
Click here to visit our Facebook page
288 Inverramsay Road, Goomburra, Qld, 4362,
Ph: (07) 4666 6174, Fax: (07) 4666 6242,
Email: sales@thompsonlonghorn.com.au
www.thompsonlonghorn.com.au
Opening hours: 8.00am until 5.00pm Monday to Friday